Guides · Git GUIs for Linux

Git GUI clients for Linux in 2026, compared.

By Quentin Hermiteau, who makes Nori. Published .

I make Nori, a Git client that runs on Linux, and it is one of the eight clients below. Every fact about the others comes from their own website, documentation or repository, linked at the end, and checked on the date given. The guide is ordered by what you need, not ranked, and it says where another client fits better than Nori. Two well-known clients are missing on purpose: Tower and Fork run on Mac and Windows only, by their own pages.

First, install Git itself

Several Linux Git GUIs, Nori and git-cola among them, run the git already on your system rather than bringing their own. Install it from your distribution and check its version:

# Ubuntu, Debian and their derivatives
sudo apt install git

# Fedora
sudo dnf install git

git --version

Set your name and email once with git config --global user.name and git config --global user.email. Every client below reads the same configuration, the same SSH keys and the same repositories, so you can try several on the same folders without importing anything.

The eight clients at a glance

Git clients for Linux, as of 28 October 2026 unless stated
ClientLicence and pricePackagesNotable
git-colaGPL-2.0, freeapt, dnf, zypper, AUR, pip; Flathub listing verified by the projectPython and PyQt; interactive rebase editor, line and hunk staging
gitgGPL-2.0-or-later, freeFlathub, Arch, source tarballGNOME app in Vala and GTK 3; version 50 added split diffs and custom actions
lazygitMIT, freeArch, apt on Debian 13 and Ubuntu 25.10 or later, Fedora Copr, Nix, binariesTerminal UI in Go; interactive rebase, worktrees, undo, bisect
GitKraken DesktopFree for local and public repositories; Pro listed at $120 per seat per year (7 October 2026).deb, .rpm, .tar.gz, SnapCommit graph, pull requests on four forges, AI on paid plans
Sublime Merge$99 once for personal use, with 3 years of updates; Business $75 per user per yearOfficial apt, pacman, dnf, yum and zypper repositories; x64 and ARM64Three-pane merge tool, commit editing
SmartGitFrom $5 per user per month, or perpetual; free for non-commercial use only.tar.gz, Flathub (verified by syntevo); .deb marked “not recommended”Three-way conflict solver, five forges, Git-Flow, LFS
GitButlerFair Source (FSL-1.1-MIT), source-available; price not checked.deb officially; .rpm and AppImage experimentalParallel and stacked branches, agent hooks through its CLI
NoriFree; Pro US$20 once for pull request reviews and issues.deb, .rpm, AppImage; x86-64Conflict resolver, undo, agents’ worktrees, GitHub and GitLab reviews

If you want free and open source

git-cola

git-cola is a GPL-2.0 desktop client “powered by Python and PyQt”. It stages by line or by hunk, has its own interactive rebase editor, a history viewer, stash and grep, and can launch your merge tool. It is packaged almost everywhere: apt, dnf, zypper, the AUR, and a Flathub listing the project verifies. It also runs on macOS and Windows. Version 4.19.0 came out on 12 July 2026.

gitg

gitg is GNOME’s Git client, GPL-2.0-or-later, written in Vala on GTK 3 and libgit2-glib. It is built around browsing history and writing commits. Version 50, released on 1 July 2026 after three years without a release, added custom actions, a full push action, deleting remote branches, renaming tags and a choice of unified or split diffs. Install it from Flathub or your distribution.

Choose one of these two if open source matters more to you than pull request work in the app. Nori is not open source.

If you live in the terminal

lazygit is an MIT-licensed terminal UI written in Go. It does a surprising amount from the keyboard: interactive rebase, line and hunk staging, worktrees, custom patches, undo, bisect, and the status of a branch’s GitHub pull request through gh. Most of its Linux packages are maintained by third parties, as its README says; version 0.66.2 came out on 16 October 2026.

If you already work in a terminal and want Git to stay there, lazygit is the one to try first.

If your day is pull requests and coding agents

GitButler

GitButler is a Tauri app with a Rust backend and a Svelte interface, under the Fair Source FSL-1.1-MIT licence: source-available, and MIT two years after each release. It is built around parallel and stacked branches in one working directory, an undo timeline, and conflicts that never stop a rebase. It integrates GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket pull requests, and its but CLI gives coding agents hooks and skills. Its official Linux package is a .deb for Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04; .rpm and AppImage are experimental. I could not check its price on its own site.

Nori

Nori runs on x86-64, with Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12 and newer, or a current Fedora, as a .deb, .rpm or AppImage. Its core is written in Rust and its window uses the system’s WebKitGTK, with no Electron. It is free on public and private repositories, with no account. It has a commit graph with drag-and-drop merge and rebase, staging down to the line, a three-way conflict resolver, interactive rebase and an undo for commits, branch deletions, stash drops and discards.

It also lists the worktrees that Claude Code, Codex and T3 Code work in, with the agent behind each, and shows what each one changed, so you can review it and open the pull request: Nori beside your agents. Nori Pro, US$20 once, reviews GitHub pull requests and GitLab merge requests in the app, with CI checks and issues.

Nori’s window, the same on Linux as on the Mac: branches in their colours, an agent’s worktree, the commit graph and the Working copy panel.

Where Nori is not the right choice

  • Your Linux machine is ARM64: Nori’s Linux build is x86-64 only.
  • Your repositories rely on submodules or Git LFS: Nori has no submodule interface and no dedicated LFS support.
  • You work on Bitbucket, Azure DevOps or Gerrit: Nori connects to GitHub, GitHub Enterprise and GitLab only.
  • You want open source: git-cola, gitg and lazygit are.
  • You need a pre-built package for an older distribution: Nori targets Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12 and newer, and current Fedora. The AppImage covers other distributions.

How to choose

Try two on a repository you know. Because they all run the same Git on the same folders, switching costs nothing. Look at three moments: reading a large diff, resolving a real conflict, and getting a branch reviewed. Those are where clients differ most, more than in their feature lists.

More on Nori on Linux, including installation and updates: Git client for Linux.

Sources

Checked on 28 October 2026, except GitKraken’s Pro price and its integrations, checked on 7 October 2026.

Every name above is a trademark of its owner. Nori is not affiliated with any of them. Something out of date? Write to [email protected] and I will correct it.

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